documentaries
Big Screen
How Grace Coddington Stole The September Issue From Anna Wintour
4:40AM Brian Moylan | When Anna Wintour agreed to the Vogue documentary The September Issue, she probably thought it would be the greatest stop on the Make-People-Like-Me-Before-My-Contract-Is-Up Tour 2009. Too bad she is cast as the villain to Grace Coddington’s triumphant hero. More »
Small Screen
Oliver Stone To Present ‘A Crazy People’s History Of The US’
7:58AM Pareene | We are actually super-excited for this: Oliver Stone is creating a “10-part documentary series for US network Showtime titled ‘Secret History of America.’” A ten-hour Oliver Stone history of America! Can you imagine how crazy wonderful this will be? More »
People
New Michael Jackson Documentary Coming On Halloween Weekend
5:41PM the cajun boy | Using more than 80 hours of footage captured during rehearsals for his ill-fated London concert series, Sony Pictures is set to release a Michael Jackson documentary in late October. Great. More »
Docmakers’ Denver Welcome Gives Way to GOP Convention Crackdown
8:40AM STV | For every Steven Spielberg flinging a Democratic National Convention short film out the limo window on his way to his cabin retreat in the Rockies, we’re learning there are a few dozen other filmmakers scavenging the floor of the convention hall with cameras and about two hours’ sleep. Such is the spirit of democracy (or something — don’t ask) fueling the makers of Convention, who have seemingly been everywhere at once this week trailing delegates, pols and pundits alike. And they’re not the only ones winding down their routines tonight as Barack Obama’s speech closes the event; Mayor of the Sunset Strip director George Hickenlooper is hanging around with his cousin, Denver mayor John Hickenlooper, and Amy Rice and Alicia Sams are neck-deep in their top-secret, Ed Norton-backed documentary following the Obama campaign. More »
Can This Man (and His Millions) Save The Dying Genre Of Documentary Film?
7:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Ted Leonsis never spent a dollar he didn’t think would somehow change the world. And after generating a few billion at AOL, buying a hockey franchise and dabbling for a while in Web 2.0, it was just a matter of time before he jumped into movies, where change follows the money faster (and certainly more glamorously) than any other industry in which he hadn’t already staked a claim. And, like untold scores of entrepreneurs before him, Leonsis’s first couple tries — as producer of the documentaries Nanking and Kicking It — flailed in the marketplace. That’ll happen. More »
Loud, Coarse Motorhead Legend to be Featured in Surprisingly Loud, Coarse Documentary
10:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Where to even start when discussing a documentary about Lemmy Kilmister, the legendary Motorhead frontman and apparent subject of a forthcoming film appropriately enough titled Lemmy? Even the fucking co-directors don’t even know, with filmmaker Greg Olliver telling Billboard today: “Shooting Lemmy is like filming dangerous wildlife. He never does what you expect him to do, and he never does anything you want him to do.” Olliver’s partner, Wes Orshoski, agreed: “Lemmy never ceases to surprise me. … You think you know who Lemmy is, but you have no idea. If you think you have Lemmy all figured out, trust me. You don’t!” Actually… we think we might. More »
Everybody Wants Some In ‘Sex: The Revolution’
8:55AM Mark Graham | While the Michael Hirschorn era at Vh1 will likely be best remembered for bringing pop culture talking heads (I Love The…, Best Week Ever), washed-up celebs (Surreal Life) and horny musicians (Flavor Of Love, Rock Of Love) into millions of homes, there is one program from his tenure that was just as critically acclaimed as it was popular. Back in the summer of 2006, a four-part documentary called The Drug Years aired to rave reviews — Variety called it a “fascinating insight into the growth of the counterculture and … its eventual hangover” — and arguably became the first series in the channel’s history that was equally appealing to pop culture enthusiasts and intellectuals. Now, after nearly two years worth of research and production, the same creative team that put The Drug Years together has returned with a brand new four-part doc entitled Sex: The Revolution. Defamer recently sat down with series writer Martin Torgoff and executive producer Brad Abramson to talk about the series that, as Torgoff explains, puts its focus on “how the sexual revolution fed into the dynamic of what became the Culture Wars in the United States.” More »
